Together with Tearfund and the Publish What You Pay coalition, ONE organised an event in the European Parliament this Wednesday, to raise awareness about the transparency laws for oil, gas and mining companies currently under discussion.
Titled “Can transparency end the resource curse?” with Bishop Stephen Munga from Tanzania, an expert within the ‘Publish What You Pay’ movement there, MEP Birgit Schnieber-Jastram and our own Acting Brussels Director Alexander Woollcombe the briefing session attracted over 20 MEPs and Parliament staff as well as 30 activists and volunteers. Fiona Hall, a British MEP, said: “I’ve had more people contact my office on extractive industries transparency than anything else in recent years.”
ONE’s petition calling on leaders to pass strong transparency laws for oil, gas and mining companies is over 86 000 signatures strong. Tearfund and ONE supporters have sent numerous letters to their MEPs and some of them came to Brussels to meet with them and ask for their support.
This is a crucial time in the European Parliament, because next week German MEP Klaus-Heiner Lehne and British MEP Arlene McCarthy will publish the draft Parliament reports on the EU transparency laws. It is important for the European Parliament to champion transparency, because in order for the EU laws to be adopted, they have to strike a deal with the Council of the European Union.
We need your support to make sure MEPs and EU member states don’t water down the laws. As Bishop Munga said during the event, “If information is published on the payments made to developing countries in return for oil, gas and mineral contracts, communities local to these projects, often exploited as a consequence, can be empowered to hold their governments to account”.
Click here to sign our petition!